Helping an economic development agency improve affordability, coverage, and market decision-making across residential, commercial, and public Wi-Fi services

Broadband access shapes far more than connectivity. It influences economic opportunity, neighborhood vitality, business competitiveness, and whether residents can fully participate in modern city life. For organizations focused on inclusive economic development, weak broadband performance is not simply a market issue — it is a barrier to equity and growth.

Karma Advisory helped a New York City economic development agency address that challenge with a more actionable, evidence-based broadband strategy.

The client’s mission centered on advancing inclusive economic development across the five boroughs, supporting equitable neighborhoods and investing in industries such as technology, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. To support that broader mission, the agency needed a clearer go-forward strategy for its residential, commercial, and public Wi-Fi markets. Broadband performance across the city was falling short in important ways, with high prices, slow speeds, and insufficient coverage limiting access for residents and businesses alike. Karma was brought in to conduct a comprehensive broadband review and help the client determine where and how to intervene most effectively.

The Challenge

The client needed to make strategic decisions in a broadband environment that was both uneven and difficult to assess with confidence.

Market performance in key areas was underwhelming. Residential and commercial users faced affordability challenges, slower speeds than expected, and inconsistent coverage. At the same time, the city needed to understand how to improve public Wi-Fi and think more broadly about the role broadband could play in supporting economic development, neighborhood equity, and future-ready infrastructure.

One major challenge was the quality of the underlying maps. Because neighborhoods had changed over time, existing maps were not always accurate or reliable enough to support strong decision-making. Another challenge was the sheer complexity of the data itself. The city’s broadband conditions varied widely across geographies, and the client needed a way to analyze robust, geographically diverse information in a form that could guide market strategy, investment priorities, and intervention choices.

This was not just a research exercise. The client needed a practical strategy that could support real funding and policy decisions.

The Approach

Karma conducted a broad set of qualitative and quantitative analyses to give the client a clearer view of the city’s broadband market and the strategic options available to improve it.

We developed measurable indicators tailored to New York City but grounded in leading practices for broadband affordability, speed, and reliability. To improve the city’s view of actual access conditions, the team queried more than 52,000 addresses and used the results to create more accurate maps of broadband availability and performance.

Karma also benchmarked broadband delivery models from across the United States and internationally, helping the client understand how other cities were approaching market governance, affordability, municipal ownership, public Wi-Fi, smart-city technology deployment, and the use of innovative infrastructure such as smart light poles and street furniture.

Beyond analysis, the engagement focused on decision support. Karma created tools that helped the client identify which interventions made the most sense by neighborhood, while also modeling the associated costs and benefits. This made it possible to move from broad market diagnosis to more targeted strategic choices.

What Karma Delivered

Karma delivered a city-specific broadband strategy grounded in market analysis, benchmarking, and practical investment planning.

This included:

• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the city’s broadband market
• Customized performance indicators for affordability, speed, and reliability
• Broadband access mapping based on analysis of more than 52,000 addresses
• Benchmarking of broadband models from cities across the U.S. and globally
• Analysis of governance models, public Wi-Fi approaches, smart-city technology, and innovative street furniture
• Neighborhood-level tools to identify the right interventions by market need
• Cost and benefit modeling to support investment decisions and funding strategy

The Outcome

The engagement left the client with a more actionable capital strategy and a stronger case for investment.

Karma’s work gave the agency a clearer understanding of the city’s broadband challenges, the interventions best suited to different neighborhoods, and the funding implications of those choices. The result was a practical strategy aligned to the client’s approximately $70 million annual budget, along with the tools needed to justify additional investment where warranted.

That strategic foundation had immediate impact. The work helped the client secure more than $4 million in additional funding for a single neighborhood, delivering broadband access to hundreds of residents and businesses. In doing so, the engagement supported local economic activity, expanded connectivity, and helped close part of the digital divide in a targeted and measurable way.

What began as a market performance problem became a more informed and investment-ready strategy for inclusive broadband growth.

Why It Mattered

For cities focused on equitable growth, broadband strategy is economic strategy.

By helping the client move from incomplete market visibility to a more precise and actionable plan, Karma enabled stronger decision-making around where to invest, how to intervene, and how to build the case for greater funding. The engagement shows how careful analysis, better data, and practical strategic tools can help cities address digital inequities while also supporting business growth and neighborhood vitality.

Closing Perspective

Karma Advisory helps organizations turn complex infrastructure and market challenges into actionable strategies that support long-term growth. In this case, that meant helping a New York City economic development agency develop a smarter broadband strategy—one grounded in better data, sharper market insight, and clearer investment choices to improve access, affordability, and opportunity across the city.